MADEIRA

 It has been quite a while since I have added to my travel journal, not for want of travelling though.  Our recent trip was to Madeira, an island belonging to Portugal just north of the Canary Islands.  We chose to go there because we needed a bit of warm respite from the long Canadian Winter and weren't prepared to pay the huge differential in the American Dollar, which is where we would normally choose to go for a quick winter break.

What a good choice we made!  Madeira is truly like a garden, and for people like us who really love gardens and flowers, this was a wonderful place to visit.  The climate is quite mild all year long and they are able to grow all kinds of tropical fruits and flowers.  The island is made up primarily of rock and there islots of walking up and down.  This time we chose to do the touristy things but if we went back I think we would make a point of hiking the levadas which are the means of bringing fresh water from the hills to the towns. Some a risky to hike and they recommend going with a local guide.

Our air B&B was really conveniently located in the old town and had a great view from the balcony over the roof tops and the ocean.  A great place for a glass of wine after a busy day of sightseeing.

We took the cable car up to the Botanical Gardens.  They were truly spectacular and gave great views.

The next garden we went to was the Monte Palace Gardens.  Very different from the Botanical Gardens.  This garden was full of lovely shade trees, water features and art work.  There was an area of the garden that was an orchid garden.  Hard for us to think of a climate where you can grown these outside!

The whole place was like a garden with all kinds of flowering trees and bushes.

The newer downtown area had all kinds of different mosaic tiled sidewalks and plazas.  It made for fairly bumpy walking though and sturdy shoes were a must.

We took three guided tours in little mini buses.  It gave us a really good overview of the island in a short time.

Poncha, or rum punch in a sidewalk cafe overlooking the ocean, was a good way to wind down after some sightseeing.  I had tried the traditional poncha and the passion fruit poncha and our server didn't want us to leave without trying a taster of the Fisherman's poncha (the strongest!).  It just seemed delicious and fruity until I crashed out in our apartment for a two hour nap! a little stronger than I thought!

They had all kinds of variations on passion fruit.  This one tasted like lavender - so delicious.

It was a wonderful trip.  The people are as warm and friendly as the climate.  Definitely a place to go back to as there is lots more to explore.  The seafood was wonderful and each meal was accompanied by Bollo de Caco which was a small leavened sweet potato bread filled with lashings of fresh garlic butter - so delicious!